Ombailamos

flat-footed jive: whazzat?

DWTS:14 Commentary!

So my week one favorite Jaleel went, literally, flat on week two. And that presents a perfect opportunity to speechify more about ballroom technique! Specifically, the footwork of jive. Maybe I should have discussed that when I was preaching about jive vs. Lindy Hop last season. But then there would have been no need for this cogent explication, now would there.

Lindy Hop is danced flat (hence everyone wearing sneakers or saddle shoes). Jive, as one of the Latin dances, is danced almost entirely on the balls of the feet (and both partners wear heels - heels automatically pitch you onto the ball of the foot). That allows the dancer to get a lot of spring in their step - literally. So if someone is using the whole foot, they are really not able to create any bounce through the foot. Or (let me qualify that) they have to work really hard to create any bounce through the foot. And the more difficult something is to execute, the less likely it is to be executed.

The kicking & flicking done in jive is created through the body - tucking the midsection to draw up the knee; the up & down action is all done with the feet. You land on the ball of the foot, squeeze the heel down to the floor, and then immediately are back onto the ball of the foot. This is why competitions always run jive as the last dance in the International Latin division, because right after doing a full-power jive, even very fit competition dancers are ready to STOP.

What Jaleel appeared to do was step directly onto the flat of the foot, so he couldn't create any bounce or elevation. Plus, when the whole foot is flat on the floor, it takes more time to pick it up, and it takes more force to extend it in a kick or flick. Working on the balls of the feet makes the leg longer and the foot shorter, so that perceived foot speed can be very very fast indeed.

The dancer who executed jive footwork most correctly was Katherine. Jack had more jive content, but he was also a bit flat-footed - as were Gavin and Sherri. It was worthy of comment in Jaleel's case because his week one dance had been so very strong and technically sound. At least this time the judges gave a comment that might actually be useful.

confinement

Did you know that when a pregnant lady went into labor, she used to be shut up in her room with her female servants or friends until the birth was complete? This was called her "confinement" ... nicely literal, eh?

I am feeling a little confined myself right now, though let me hasten to add that this has nothing to do with pregnancy. Ew. Why did I even go there. No, this has to do with practicing our competition routines.

When Mr. P and I moved into our apartment, 8.5 years ago, the living room space seemed HUGE. Even after adding some furniture, we were pretty comfortable practicing all of our dances. This has definitely changed.

In 2007, we won a championship in our division. When coaching money opened up again, in 2009, we made the switch from concentrating on rhythm dances to smooth. The rhythm dances mostly don't travel. The smooth dances all travel. And smooth dances for competition require different technique from smooth dances for social.

We started working with a new coach at that time and, quite quickly, progressed to the point that we really can't execute more than two measures of choreography before we've run out of space and have to turn around.

This is GOOD, don't get me wrong! It means we are doing the dances more correctly. But it's also frustrating. Because now, not only do we not go social dancing as much (because social dancing is bad for technique, alas), we can't really "practice" at home.

We can "mark" the routines - walk through them so we don't forget the sequences - and we can tweak the choreography. We can work on positions or elements, or on questions like "if we are in a corner when we hit this position, how do we line ourselves up to go down the next wall." But we can't perform the dances as they should be performed.

Fortunately, we have access to a studio here on the westside and part of our new routine is to meet up there after work on Fridays, when there is no group class meeting, to borrow the dance floor. Most studios have open hours when students can come in to practice, often for a small fee but sometimes for free. There are often private lessons happening during these hours; everyone just has to be sportsmanlike and share the floor.

Even in that space - which is about 1/4 the size of a competition dance floor - we feel a bit squeezed now. But it is infinitely better than trying to dance BIG in a 12x20 foot living room.

It's not just trying to fit our steps to the space: we can't even fully extend our top line at home, because the smooth dances open up, and our combined wingspan is greater than the width of the room. One or the other of us routinely hits a wall, or a bookcase, during any given practice.

One thing all of our coaches have told us, which we are still trying to fully internalize, is that dancers will perform the way they have predominantly practiced. So if we practice small, we will dance small in competition. That will be our default mode. And we're not satisfied with that.

We are relatively tall, toward the younger end of our age division, and stronger than average - and we want to fully employ these advantages, to maximize our success in competition.

So we are trying to make less frequent practice count for more, by dancing as big as we possibly can in whatever space we have. And in order to make the most of our time, we do use that living room.

Because just as one shouldn't use an expensive hour of private coaching to dither about what dance to work on today, one shouldn't use a rare hour on an open dance floor to simply mark a routine.

fitness link: dietgirl

Here is a link to a great interview with a senior athlete ... make that a 72-yr-old triathlete ... who could definitely run me into the ground since I can't ride a bike, am not a strong swimmer, and only run after ice-cream trucks (kidding ... kind of).

http://www.dietgirl.org/dietgirl/2012/03/the-amazing-adventures-of-bobbie-williams.html 

I am not at all ashamed to admit that I have no ambitions regarding triathlons.  "Extreme" anything is anathema to me, and triathlons are pretty extreme.  I wouldn't recommend them to someone who didn't already run, bike, and swim; I wouldn't recommend them to someone who had a tight budget; I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who wasn't already an athlete. 

All that said ... if someone at age 55 who has never played a sport in his/her life up and decides "I'm gonna do a triathlon!," well, more power to them.  Just, please ... get a trainer!

badly written health article of the week

http://gma.yahoo.com/13-things-diet-experts-wont-tell-weight-loss-170358888--abc-news.html

The content of this article is not actually bad. The headline, however, is. So consider your sources: Reader's Digest - longtime purveyor of predigested, dumbed-down, Bowdlerized, and generally edited beyond all recognition material; and Good Morning America. Which may be entertainment (or not) but certainly isn't the first place anyone should go for the best, most complete, or most up-to-date health information.

The truth is, these 13 things ARE all things diet experts will tell you.

I've read 'em all many times in nutrition articles in Men's Health, Yoga Journal, and/or IDEA Fitness Journal (the latter of which, incidentally, continues to improve the depth and scope of its articles).

Unfortunately, most people don't consult diet experts. They consult Good Morning America (and its analogues. Why be slamming just one show when they all suck).

Here's MY health tip of the week: don't get your health advice from TV shows. Even the ones hosted by doctors. TV shows are short, and the shorter each segment is, the more incomplete, more likely to be misstated, and more subject to misinterpretation the information presented is likely to be.

Get your health information from articles written by people with M.S., M.D., or Ph.D. behind their names. You won't find many on the newsstand, but there's tons of 'em at WebMD, Mayo Clinic, PubMed, and others.

A lot of these are written by scientists for scientists, but you're smarter than you think. Once you get used to the language, you'll appreciate not being talked to like an eight-year-old.

a little bit radical

Or, maybe, a LOT radical.*

This is political; please feel free to skip it if you're not interested. I myself am not interested in starting any debates. This is my site, and I can say whatever I want, and I will delete your comment if it's really an ad for shoes, and I will also delete your comment that screams how wrong I am.

======================

Not long ago a prominent Republican put out a federal budget plan that was, on its surface, a sincere attempt to fix our country's taxation and spending priorities. Unfortunately, under the surface, the plan was a draconian rejection of the social contract. The contract, that is, that says the rich have a duty to care for their nation and their fellow citizens, without whom they most likely would not be rich.

All over the world right now - even in China, gold medalist of political repression - we are seeing large and small revolutions. Almost all have a politico-religious component, but at their core they are all about one thing: getting a fair economic share. All over the world, countries are seeing action by a critical mass of people who are just sick and tired of watching 1-5% of people take, or steal, or hoard 70-90% of the resources and wealth of the country.

Here in the U.S., 1-5% of people control 70-90% of the resources and wealth of the country.

The only thing saving us right now is that most of our citizens are distracted by trivia (Real Housewives! Playoffs!) and self-interest. Our country is so big, with so many relatively distinct populations, so much self-segregation of interest groups, and so many micro-economies (and such poor historical education) that most of our citizens don't grasp the implications. They don't understand that having a few rich people (and companies) running things is the disease causing most of our social ills.* They don't understand the extent to which the rich and the corporate own and direct our social policies.

Seriously: is there any scenario in which cutting research budgets and infrastructure spending is going to improve our country's economic future?

Poverty and petty crime are symptoms, political and financial corruption are symptoms, Medicare fraud is a symptom, drug abuse is a symptom. A person with a sense of meaning in life does not rely on drugs. A person with choices in how to earn a living does not turn to crime. A well-regulated banking industry does not submit thousands of forged documents to courts in order to foreclose on people who were lied to by mortgage salesmen. A well-regulated healthcare industry does not leave so many loopholes and support so little supervision that a family in a trailer park can claim tens of thousands of dollars for medical equipment they don't need, want, use, or even receive. A transparent government does not vote to pay itself 95% of the city's total tax revenue (hello, Bell, CA).

I do not want to live in a society that does not believe in a social safety net.

I also do not want to live in a country that spends 80% of its tax dollars on other countries' civil wars, the last two weeks of life of its aged and terminally ill, or retirement-income support for people who own million-dollar homes. I do not want to live in a country that allows multi-billion-dollar corporations to pay no corporate income tax, and I also do not want to live in a country where a large percentage of citizens earn so little that they are liable for no income taxes at all.

Fortunately - ? - the U.S. is still the only country in the world where I want to live, even though I disagree, in many cases, with our policies. I think most people here feel the same way. There certainly is no sign of a pending mass exodus to Canada or Brazil or Australia.

So, barring complete fatalism and abandonment of engagement with our government, we really need to stop watching the damn TV and start saying what we believe we should do. We should not be letting these policies be drafted and made law by people who are owned by corporate interests and their own political self-interest.

We have a level of access to our representatives now that is unprecedented. We CAN make ourselves heard. We MUST NOT let these conversations be dominated by people in the top 1-5%. They are only richer than we are ... not smarter, or more creative, or more "important."

We SHOULD push forward the age for claiming full benefits under Social Security - and implement means testing. We SHOULD cut what's covered by Medicare. We SHOULD cut the defense budget. We SHOULD allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. We SHOULD amend the tax code. We SHOULD put the entire federal government's power structure under a microscope, and cut programs or departments where we can. We SHOULD ensure that all citizens can at least afford an annual Pap smear (or well-child visit, or prostate exam), eye exam, and blood work. We SHOULD stop moving social supports and medical care beyond the reach of women (and allowing religious dogma to dictate what medical procedures a woman can or cannot safely obtain).

There are some departments of our Federal government that I think should be shuttered for good. There are others that I think should be expanded. I think every person who is discontented with our government should go to the public documents available to us all online, and read them, in order to understand what we are dealing with.

We have to remember that every government program and department was put in place because citizens asked for it. So we really, really need to quit this bullshit about how "discretionary spending" is the problem. Those programs are the programs that define us as Americans.

That's what I think.

*This is republished from April 2011.

*A note. I do not believe that rich individuals or billion-dollar corporations are our enemy, or are, per se, evil; or that there is some kind of intentional conspiracy at work. What I believe is -simply - that the overwhelming influence that rich individuals and corporations have on our government is pernicious. And completely predictable. It is our own damn fault that we the people, the 95% percent who have little influence, have allowed the rich and the corporations to assume so much influence. We have allowed it. We need to stop. We need to stop discussing and debating everything to death and instead read, think, write, and VOTE.

unplugging

Life simplification!

I am not a minimalist. I am materialistic, acquisitive, and an enthusiastic consumer of entertainment. But over the years I have either resisted adopting, or have abandoned, certain common habits that cost a lot of people a lot of time that they could be using in other, more healthy ways. And by healthy I mean literal, physical health.

My job enables me to take care of quite a lot of personal business during the workday. I treasure this, and it's one of the primary factors in choosing to remain in my line of work for such a long time. It's up to me, however, to actually use my workday downtime productively. I could just surf Facebook, or roam around the office gossiping, like some co-workers do.

So the mere ability to, say, pay my bills online on my lunch hour only serves me because I use it. If I had the ability and still waited till I got home to pay my bills, well, that would be a choice that reduces my available time to do anything else - like make a meal plan, or lift some weights.

I try to do NO personal business at home on weeknights. I might check e-mail, if I've got something urgent and important on the burner. But usually: nope. I don't cruise Facebook, either. Most nights, I don't turn on my laptop at all. For me it's a tool, not a toy, and often I use it heavily on the weekends, but I don't want to use it on weeknights - so I try to make sure I don't need to. That's my routine.

It means my weeknights are kept mostly free for having a decent dinner, tidying up our home, and spending some quality time with my little family.

Another thing I do that I think would appall a majority of Americans is ... I don't answer the phone. Our landline phone has a feature that announces the caller. Mr. P has also assigned distinct ringtones for the few important people who might call us on that line. If the standard ringtone goes and the announcement widget doesn't state a friend's name, we don't pick up the phone. We have not once missed out on an important communication.

Even more appalling: I don't answer my cell phone. It is also, for me, a tool and not a toy. It exists in my life so that if *I* need to make a private call, I have the capacity - not to enable random people to interrupt me every ten minutes with trivia or nonsense.

I've advised pretty much everyone in my life that I don't make or receive personal phone calls during business hours. (This is largely out of respect for my employers, believe it or not: I've been a supervisor, and it drove me crazy when staffers were on their cell phone all day. Even if they got their work done! It's inherently disruptive.) Email is much more discreet, so I tell EVERYONE that the best way to reach me is by email. Works great. I almost never have a cell message to respond to. And you know? I've never missed out on anything important.

I don't text for entertainment, though I do occasionally when I want to quietly leave someone a message or ask a question. I don't play phone games. I have what's technically a smart phone, but I treat it like the dumbest old phone I can. I think this helps me A LOT when it comes to being productive with my time.

I'm not focused on this piece of plastic, so I can focus on other things.

I know I don't speak to everybody with this counter-cultural philosophy. But maybe those in my immediate peer group - the middle-aged professional with a family and at least one important hobby - might want to consider the value of unplugging.

Making more money is fairly easy. Making more time is impossible.

planning & routine

The importance of planning and routine cannot be overstated.

We live in a world of ever-increasing apparent complexity. I say "apparent" because the specific tasks and obligations that come before us each day aren't truly getting more numerous or more complicated. They seem so because of our eager adoption of multimedia life. How we approach these tasks and obligations can make a measurable difference in the peace and comfort of our homes, the stress levels in our personal relationships, and the success of our individual endeavors.

The more we simplify our recurring tasks and obligations, the more easily we can cope with the barrage of inputs we receive on a daily basis. Ideally, we don't have to think much about "how am I going to get this done."

I'm going to restrict today's sermon to the areas of fitness and nutrition. Last week I described the way I routinely shop for food. I didn't point out one essential part of the routine: making the time for it.

The produce comes to me at my office, and I can pick up lunch stuff at the gourmet grocer in the mall near my workplace, on my lunch hour. But I have to go out, with my car, for everything else. This means (obviously): I can't go during my workday. I have to do my major food shopping in the evenings or on the weekends.

So, what do I do? One night a week I'll stop, on my way home from work, at the neighborhood market for the shorter-term purchases. The dairy, mostly; and any bits & pieces that I'm running low on, or that I want in order to address my produce box. That's 2/3 of the shopping managed, with just one stop a week.

The longer-term purchases like half-gallons of milk, the proteins, and breakfast supplies (which have a longer use life) require a separate trip. I am blessed with a superb, large supermarket only about a mile away from home. It's a nuisance of a trip on a weeknight, due to its location. On a Saturday or Sunday morning, though, it's a snap. It has a gorgeous butcher shop.

My other good option is another large supermarket about 4 miles from home. It's easy to get to but tends to be crowded on weekends toward midday (and later). So in order to get this trip done with a minimum of annoyance I schedule it - about once a month - for a Saturday morning.

The supermarket isn't usually my first trip of that day. I'll schedule other errands that target the same part of town and do them all in a swoop. Goodwill dropoff, Petco, World Market if I need to stock up on wine & chocolate, the hardware store, BBB - anything like that - all are easily "hit" within a couple of hours, including the supermarket.

My ideal weekend is one in which I don't HAVE to leave the house on Saturday. But since I do have to do these errands, I try to be as efficient as possible. I don't shop for entertainment anymore; I go out and do what I need to do, and then go home. Side note: I got out of the shopping habit over four years of not having a car. I'd rent a car quarterly to do the Big Errands. It was great training for life-simplification.

Now, if I'm doing a swoop of errands there is one other essential thing to plan, and that's breakfast. It's a BIG MISTAKE to do any kind of shopping on an empty stomach. Hungry = cranky = forgetting something and being pissed off in general.

I know a lot of people who have to stop at the grocery store almost every day. The reasons why?

• They don't do a meal plan.
• They don't shop from a list.
• They don't have a routine.

They waste a LOT of time, and probably money, because they haven't arrived at a planned solution for this necessary activity.

The same strategies can be applied to fitness. As indicated, I think nutrition is a huge part of fitness, and making a plan for bringing quality food into your life is going to make a bigger difference to overall, long-term fitness and health than any amount of gym visits.

But if you want to include any physical activity in your routine - as I do - then you have to plan that, too. You really can't say "I'll do my workout later" at six different points throughout your day. It's got to be part of a plan, or you'll end up at day's end having done no exercise.

In my case, every morning I do at least some yoga. It's part of my routine: I get my tea (and do some barre exercises while that's in prep), I get the comb, I sit down on the floor with my cat. When he's satisfied with his grooming, I do my hip openers and back releases, and some core work. And then I go get in the shower.

Having that intention, and deliberately making this part of my routine, ensures that no matter what happens the rest of the day, I've done what I need to do to maintain my flexibility and at least some of my strength.

My overall schedule is dictated by where I live and where I work. So is everybody else's. Better health won't happen by accident or "luck." I choose to plan for it - and that means making time for it in my day.

a proper night's sleep

A couple of days ago I ranted about my hatred of the Daylight Saving Time boondoggle. I hate it because it introduces unnecessary complexity to our already-disordered lives, but I chiefly hate it because it messes up my sleep patterns. I had a decade of being a more or less chronic insomniac, and it's still very easy for me to slide back into bad sleep habits.

Here is a brief discussion of the ways I try to keep my average daily sleep between 7.5 and 8 hours - the amount I've found optimal for maintaining my mental and physical health.

Basic sleep hygiene (all supported by numerous studies):

• keep the bedroom as dark as possible at night. We invested in a double layer of drapery, taking down the vertical blinds that came with our apartment. One layer is just sheers, but the top layer is heavy, and lined.
• keep electronics out of the bedroom. We have an alarm clock - a very quiet Travel Ben that lives in a drawer most of the time - and a shelf clock. The shelf clock lives behind the glass door of one of the bookcases; I can't see it, or hear it ticking, from the bed. No digital displays, no TV, no phones, and no computer - although occasionally, one or the other of us will read something on our Kindles after going to bed.
• keep the bedroom cool. Even though I like to be warm at night, I do it with blankets (and cats); the central-heating vent to the bedroom is kept closed.
• keep to a routine. I go to bed between 10:30 and 11:00, generally read for about a half-hour, and generally have no trouble getting to sleep - or staying asleep. I get up around 7:00 even on weekends, even if we've been out late. The cats help with this.

Something else I've found very helpful for better sleep is to stretch before going to bed. Especially if I've been walking (or dancing) a lot, or if I got lapped by one of the cats and was immobilized on the couch, my legs tend to be twitchy in the evenings. Taking five or ten minutes to get down on the floor and stretch everything out, and in extreme cases to apply the foam roller, makes an enormous difference.

Further best practices:

• no caffeine after 3:00 p.m.
• no alcohol after 9 p.m.
• don't go to bed hungry (I'll have a handful of nuts or a small glass of milk if I'm feeling really hungry toward bedtime)
• always take off makeup, brush teeth, and moisturize (rituals like these are good for the skin and teeth, but also help the rest of the body "get ready" for sleep)
• if the cats are restless, toss them out and close the door.

I love 'em, but they have all day to sleep. I only get those 8 hours.

how I shop for food

I read a couple other blogs (no, really??) and because of my interests, the writers and commenters often touch on nutrition. IMO nutrition is an even bigger part of fitness than exercise is. I sincerely believe that the way I buy food has much to do with my ability to maintain an acceptable level of fitness despite a mostly inactive lifestyle (hello, millions of other desk workers).

That's not to say that exercise isn't important. All the great nutrition in the world won't prevent you from getting back pain or headaches or digestive problems or anything else associated with inactivity. It can go a really long way, however, to helping stave off chronic health issues like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and of course obesity - even if your level of activity is low.

So, here's how I shop.

I've mentioned before that I signed up for a delivery service of organic produce from Capay Farms (Farm Fresh To You). This is great for me because A) I get stuff I probably wouldn't otherwise buy; B) I don't have to go out looking for it.

Raise your hand if you work full time and don't really want to use part of your precious weekend haunting the farmer's market.

I signed up for an every-two-week schedule of a "medium" size box, which generally contains six to eight different vegetables and three to four fruits, total weight about 10-12 pounds. That's a lot of produce, and has proven to last me and Mr. P quite well for two weeks. All I really have to add to that via the grocery store is proteins, grains, and dairy.

I usually shop once a week, and part of my strategy is: routine. I alternate between two routine breakfasts: yogurt plus granola, and oatmeal. My requirements for breakfast for a week:

• old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats or, heaven forbid, instant);
• nonfat dry milk;
• granola;
• Greek yogurt;
• 2% milk;
• dried cranberries;
• chopped walnuts;
• spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc).

Now, perhaps obviously, a big carton of oats lasts a loooong time when you are only using 1/2 cup of oats per day. This is a really economical buy, as is a box of dry milk (using about 1/4 cup with each serving of oatmeal). A box of dried cranberries (bulk packaging, not the cute, and expensive, little zipper bags from Ocean Spray) or walnuts also lasts quite a while, because I only use about 2 tablespoons at a time. Spices are not by any means a weekly purchase. I am working with a giant canister of ground nutmeg that is years old (and still tastes fine, thanks). A half-gallon of organic milk lasts at least two weeks.

The nutritional components delivered by these combinations include fiber (lots of fiber), protein, Omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and calcium.

Now, what about lunch? I'll readily confess that I eat out at least three days most weeks. There are lunch counters downstairs in my building where I can get a chicken Caesar salad, a BBQ chicken "pizza" on whole-wheat flatbread, or a grilled-cheese sandwich. I generally alternate between these items because I know they're tasty, and they're reasonable in terms of calories. The grilled-cheese sandwich obviously is the least nutritious, the salad the most. In all cases I supplement them with at least one piece of real fruit per day, usually a few sweet gherkins, and often a can of V8 Fusion as well. On the days I bring my own, it's generally a sandwich - bread, cheese, salami.

So the shopping list for lunch includes:

• bananas;
• V8 Fusion;
• King's Hawaiian original rolls (two of these for bring-my-own lunch);
• sliced cheese;
• sliced salami;
• sweet pickles.

This routine helps keep me from the slippery slope that is Too Many Choices. My workplace is an easy walk from a mall with a food court and several restaurants, but I know perfectly well that the food I would get there is certainly not going to be cheaper than what I can get in my own building, is probably not going to taste that much better, and most likely isn't going to be more nutritious either.

I keep it simple, and it saves me time, money, and hassles.

And then there's DINNER. Here again, having a routine - a set of basic preparations that I know we both like, that are easy/quick to accomplish, and that will satisfy the palate as well as our nutritional needs - is a big, big thing. I use my produce box to make a meal plan, and then I shop for proteins.

I typically buy proteins only once every two weeks, and stock the freezer so I just don't have to think about it more than twice a month. See above re Too Many Choices. I habitually get:

• pork tenderloin (no flavorings added! - those sodium levels are SHOCKING);
• boneless & skinless chicken thighs (preferred brand Open Nature);
• ground bison;
• beef tri-tip;
• pot roast meat, like a nice piece of beef chuck or pork shoulder;
• stew meat, like boneless pork ribs or bone-in oxtails;
• cheese - crumbled gorgonzola is a frequent player, also Italian cheese mix, and sliceable cheese for snacking. I'd rather we ate a few slices of cheese than a bag of chips;
• mixed nuts - see above re: snacking.

I also have certain staples that I keep on hand because they can help me compose a multi-day dish:

• Bottled pasta sauce (I like Classico Mushroom & Black Olive);
• prepared chili beans (whatever's cheapest);
• tomato paste (organic);
• Grillin' Beans (I like the Southern Pit Barbecue flavor despite the masses of sugar);
• red, purple, and/or black rice;
• a box of spaghetti;
• pineapple-in-juice snack cups (great for pot roasts or for mashed yams).

I've learned enough about cooking over the past two years that I can now prepare a good meal start to finish in 30 to 45 minutes. That's acceptable to me. Any more time than that, on a weeknight at least, gets annoying. I have other stuff to do. I have dances to practice! and TV to watch!!

My point is, planning ahead and establishing routines and NOT BUYING STUFF I DON'T NEED combine to create a food strategy that guarantees high nutrition, with relatively low time expenditure. That's shopping FTW.

hating the time change

Seriously. Do we really need it? Does it serve an actual purpose in our socioeconomic construct? Arizona and Hawaii get along without it. A lot of studies have been done and many find that "daylight saving time," as we call it in the U.S., has some slight benefits in terms of road safety and energy savings. In the main, though, I don't buy it.

A cited study (from 1976, just a little bit outdated) found that 68% of people favored DST because it gave them more daylight time for activities in the evening. That information is 36 years old and our cultural life has changed enormously. More people have longer commutes, meaning no matter when the sun goes down, a lot of us are still on the road when it happens.

When we do finally get home, we now have approximately infinite hours of media to consume in the time before we go to bed. And people with kids don't now (or so I understand) routinely toss them out of the house to play in the yard or the street, the way they did in the 1970s. The kids are either in a supervised environment, or inside the house. So it hardly matters whether there is still daylight, does it?

But quite aside from the socioeconomic arguments pro/con, I hate the time change because it screws up my body clock. That is reason enough to hate it. I have this nice routine established during the winter, I don't even need my alarm clock to wake up, and then we have to re-set the clocks and everything goes to hell.

The time changes do not help me in any way. I still have to get to work by 9:00 and I don't get to leave till 5:30. My time before work is consumed with getting ready for work. If I am going anywhere in the evening it's still via automobile, not by horse and frickin' buggy. By the time I get where I'm going (here in this grandly foul metropolis) it's going to be dark anyway. If I want sunshine, I need to get out of the office on my lunch hour - no matter what time of year it is.

And my experience probably tracks pretty closely with the average American experience in these modern days. If you work for a living, you don't see the sun except through your car windshield, unless you go out at lunch. Right? So ...

WHY DO WE CONTINUE WITH THIS ARRANT NONSENSE EVERY YEAR?!

It costs money to do this. Most notably, transportation systems have enormous amounts of adjustments to make at both ends of DST, those adjustments take employee and processing time (which costs money), and everyone using those systems - or working within those systems - is affected.

And the time change does kill people. Pedestrians are killed by drivers at a much higher rate in the week following the time change. Speaking as someone who used to walk to work - and might still, if I didn't now have to cross two major thoroughfares - I don't think even a million dollars in energy savings is worth a single pedestrian death.

And on a purely personal level, I'd appreciate not having my schedule screwed up any more than it already is.